Quick Links

A few questions to decide if I give TESO another try

Comments

Or god forbid you do something in a mmoRPg for the sake of it being there and it giving you fun to do so, and not just for major profit.

I do crafting super casually now and mostly just for the RP of it. My warden is a cook and possibly might end up an alchemist as well. I put a little effort into woodworking, and occasionally other crafts just so I can craft housing stuff. And that's how I do it now.

I still harvest anything in clicking distance. I'm oldschool when it comes to hoovering resources and cash in an mmo.

Before the update though I used to organize my crafting amongst characters. The changes in game are worse for min/maxing but probably better for building an interesting character.

Interestingly enough the most useful crafting professions are also the most storage intensive. You don't want to try and do alchemy, culinary arts, or runecrafting unless you sub. The others can be more reasonably managed.

I've just started myself, and I can second the crafting storage requirements. I haven't subscribed yet, and may not for awhile. My strategy (2nd character so far) is to focus on woodworking, and picking up every Runestone and rare plants to pass upwards to the all trades mistake character. I'm not a fan of the bank -- it's 100% shared slots, so there's overly restricted storage. I'm close to buying the overly expensive in-game storage expansion, then I'll see how it does.

And why does every container in the game contain only 1 item, and only food components at that? I need to find an NPC that has been hoarding Butterfly Wings or Stinkhorns. At least, most of the rare plants need to drop more than 1 item per plant.

A short question for the veteran players here: I'm a certified blacksmith, can you be certified in more than one profession?

Yup. In all of them with one character if you want.

As a matter of fact the housing item crafting encourages you to concentrate your crafting on one character since many of the recipes for that require proficiency in 2 or 3 different crafts on the same character.

The problem is that you'll need the same skill points to put into crafting that you use to develop your fighting skills. That's not much of a problem later on but you won't have the points to spread out into all crafting as well as all the active and passive skills you'll need for fighting for a good long while.

If you dual or triple role your character as DPS/healer/tank that also compounds the problem since you'll need to spend more points on different weapon and armor lines as well.

Unless you really, really enjoy the crafting and want to focus on that, I would advise you to pick one or two crafts (and provisioning should definitely be one of those) and don't add more until you have a lot of spare skill points later on.

“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED

Yes but the number you can get is huge. You get them from leveling, skyshards, some quests, first run through a group instance, the group boss in public dungeons, PVP ranks, etc.

You eventually have more than enough to do it all on one character if you want but the keyword here is "eventually." As you level-up you'll always have fewer skill points than useful abilities and passives to put them into even without putting some in crafting.

“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED

Yes but the number you can get is huge. You get them from leveling, skyshards, some quests, first run through a group instance, the group boss in public dungeons, PVP ranks, etc.

You eventually have more than enough to do it all on one character if you want but the keyword here is "eventually." As you level-up you'll always have fewer skill points than useful abilities and passives to put them into even without putting some in crafting.

My strategy for character #2 is the only skill point that goes into crafting goes into the 'find mat' passive. For me, that's woodworking. As I stumble across the others (Jute and Iron Ore), I'll harvest those too.

Yes but the number you can get is huge. You get them from leveling, skyshards, some quests, first run through a group instance, the group boss in public dungeons, PVP ranks, etc.

You eventually have more than enough to do it all on one character if you want but the keyword here is "eventually." As you level-up you'll always have fewer skill points than useful abilities and passives to put them into even without putting some in crafting.

My strategy for character #2 is the only skill point that goes into crafting goes into the 'find mat' passive. For me, that's woodworking. As I stumble across the others (Jute and Iron Ore), I'll harvest those too.

At level 10 (Breton Templar), that seems to be working well.

The harder mats to find without putting points in it to make them glowy are plants for alchemy and clothing.

Runes have their own natural glow that makes them easy to spot and ore and wood nodes are bigger and stick out.

And if you play on the PC, there's a great little add-on called "Harvest Map" that remembers where you found anything including chests and all mats. It then puts markers on the map for future reference.

“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED

Mhh but doesn't concentrating all crafting on one character deplete him from combat skill points ?

It does. Early on in the game it matters a lot more. Later on when you have a lot it won't as much. That depends on how versatile or specialized you want your character to be.

One thing is that rare crafting motifs work across professions so if one character crafts wood and leather/cloth they would only need one motif for both of those, but if they were split across two characters they would both need a motif. It's a min/max thing though and not necessary.

"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey

I've tried it with the VR headset by the way.It's a bit confusing first, but the system they used combining headtracking and mouse works great.My only issue is seeing the various UI parts, but with vorpX, you can quickly switch to "Virtual Cinema" mode for that which makes it just as easy as on a monitor.Combat is great and really immersive in VR. You WILL get scared and turn your head from that mob coming in your back.

My best MMORPG VR experience so far. The guys at vorpX did a great job on this one.

"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent" - Qui-gon Jinn in Star Wars.After many years of reading Internet forums, there's no doubt that nor does the ability to write.

I mena if you really want to give ESO another try you could always just pay $14 without buying anything else and give it a try see if you like the game unless you actually completed all the old content or something, and the game is always free so you can just login it check out the cash shop, and tthe new housing and content they have added for example.

Personally I might try getting into ESO full time if I can get a few other guildies to hop over there and actually play the game at tleast until AOC comes out.

ESO really does need some hard improvements especially on housing where its completely useless at the moment othere than crafting and bragging rights, but it should be like Arche Age where you cna plant gardens, and have a cave with mines and such on different houses.

There's so much to do, a bit like GW2 where you can't walk 100 meters without finding some event, I'm enjoying my "newbie" time since it only happens once.

I'll try it too, definitely.

That's awesome and pretty much how I play. They do a great job making your character feel a part of and swept up in the events of the zone.

Iseline suggested I farm Rivenspire for the gear set for my warden. I do have greens and blues for the set but I got so swept up in the story events that it's pulled me away from Morrowind which I very much want to get back to.

There's so much to do, a bit like GW2 where you can't walk 100 meters without finding some event, I'm enjoying my "newbie" time since it only happens once.

I'll try it too, definitely.

Try PVP when you want and how you want. That's the great thing about games that segregate PVP into its own zone.

And in case you don't know, there really is no need to wait until you're high level to do it: the one campaign for those between level 10 and 49 is very active and a lot of fun because it's not full of the geared to the teeth OCD crowd.

Also, if you're doing a stamina-based build, there are 2 or 3 skills you can only get by PVPing a bit that are very useful in PVE also: there's Vigor which is the only stamina-based heal in the game for any class that is not a Warden and Caltrops which is probably the best AOE DOT in the game.

You only need to PVP enough to unlock them because once you do, they can be leveled up and morphed by using them in PVE.

There is so much use of cheap siege weapons in ESO PVP that even level 10 players with just one skill bar and missing all the skills they'll unlock later on can still contribute by using ballistas and trebuchets and/or repairing walls and doors after a battle. You can easily unlock the skills I mentioned above by playing just a few hours in Cyrodiil.

And IMO, the ESO PvP community is very friendly and inclusive - almost exactly the opposite of the dungeon pugging crowd where you tend to see some drama. It's good for a retro buzz that brings back memories of grouping in MMOs 15 years ago.

“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED

To those who are still hesitating in trying this game, it's been a month now and I don't regret a single cent of my purchase. The amount and variety (and quality) of content in this game is mind blowing.

I already purchased 6 months of ESO+ subscription.

Another feature I love and I greatly miss in other games like WoW is the ability to get an "offline" status. It allows some privacy for when you don't feel like grouping and just want to explore at your own rhythm. Every online game should have that option.

"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent" - Qui-gon Jinn in Star Wars.After many years of reading Internet forums, there's no doubt that nor does the ability to write.

I just looked at furniture crafting. That could be a nightmare. I may keep my house empty for the time being.

It is. Not only are the mat drops for furniture crafting too rare, the quantities required are also quite high. On top of that most of the better blue or purple quality crafted items requires high proficiency in 2 different crafts.

The only saving grace is that it has now been around long enough that the prices for crafted furniture at guild stores has come down quite a bit.

“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED

I can't imagine playing this game without ESO+. The inventory and bank micromanagement must be a true nightmare. But then, it's the same price than a WoW account, and you not only get the materials bank, but also more normal bank space, 1500 crowns every month and unrestricted access to all DLC which are all very good. Definitely a good deal.

"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent" - Qui-gon Jinn in Star Wars.After many years of reading Internet forums, there's no doubt that nor does the ability to write.

There are to many games out now that get my 1st subscription or buying of the game, if it does not fair well I will not give them a 2nd chance. My rule of thumb.

That mindset is only hurting you. Most mmos change a lot over the course of expansions and content updates. ESO and FF14 are great examples of this. You might end up really missing out on a great game.